In recent years, the printer which executes printing on a paper with non-contact IC (integrated circuit) chip (that is, the paper on which the non-contact IC chip is embedded) is proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-337426. Here, it should be noted that “IC chip” can be also called “IC” simply. More specifically, in a case where the printing on the paper with non-contact IC chip is executed, the printer writes information to a non-contact IC chip which has been embedded on the paper with non-contact IC chip. Besides, the printer executes the printing on the basis of the information held in the non-contact IC chip embedded in the paper with non-contact IC chip. Incidentally, it should be noted that the non-contact IC chip is also called a non-contact IC tag or a non-contact IC and is used in the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology.
In the printer which writes the information to the non-contact IC chip in case of the printing to the paper with non-contact IC chip, if the image data input to the printer includes the information to be written to the non-contact IC chip, the relevant information is written to the non-contact IC chip and also the printing based on the input image data is executed on the paper with non-contact IC chip.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-337426, if the paper with non-contact IC chip to be fed to the printer runs out, the information to be written to the non-contact IC chip on the paper with non-contact IC chip is transformed into a QR (quick response) code, and the acquired QR code as well as the input image data is printed on an ordinary paper (that is, the paper on which there is no non-contact IC chip) instead of the paper with non-contact IC chip.
In addition, the technology that, if the information was not able to be written to the non-contact IC chip on the paper with non-contact IC chip, the previous content is printed on a next paper with non-contact IC chip and also the relevant information is written to the non-contact IC chip on the next paper with non-contact IC chip is proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-288557.
As described above, in the case where the QR code is printed on the ordinary paper together with the input image data if the paper with non-contact IC chip runs out, it is possible to compensate a lack of the information by printing the QR code on the ordinary paper. However, in that case, for example, there is a possibility that the paper with non-contact IC chip on which the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip was failed is output. As a result, the output paper with non-contact IC chip is short of the information to be written to the non-contact IC chip under normal conditions.
Moreover, in a case where the information was not able to be written in the non-contact IC chip on the paper with non-contact IC chip, if the technology of printing the previous content on the next paper with non-contact IC chip and also writing the previous information to the non-contact IC chip on the next paper with non-contact IC chip is used, it is possible to acquire the predetermined number of papers with non-contact IC chip on which the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip succeeded. However, in that case, the sheaf of the papers with non-contact IC chip mixedly includes the papers with non-contact IC chip on which the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip succeeded and the papers with non-contact IC chip on which the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip did not succeed (or the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip failed). For this reason, the user has to appropriately sort in the relevant sheaf the papers with non-contact IC chip on which the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip succeeded from the papers with non-contact IC chip on which the writing of the information to the non-contact IC chip failed.
Moreover, it is generally needless or useless to execute the image formation to the papers with non-contact IC chip on which the writing/reading to/from the non-contact IC chip failed. For this reason, it is necessary not to execute such needless image formation.